Related Tags:

(WSCR) Jay Cutler’s most-recent comments indicating he may be out for the season leave the Bears hanging their playoff hopes on Caleb Hanie.

In his first press conference since injuring his right thumb, Cutler said: “I got to be smart about it. Obviously I’d want to play next weekend if they’d let me, but I don’t think that’s going to be in the cards. It could be I’m done for the season.”

One Bears expert said it doesn’t look good for Cutler.

“It certainly looks grim right now,” Brad Biggs of The National Football Post and the Chicago Tribune told The Mully and Hanley Show on Thursday. “You have to realize that the first time table that anybody gave him in terms of ‘OK surgery is going to be required and this is what it’s going to be,’ was 6-8 weeks. So, six weeks would take you through the entire regular season.”

Taking over for Cutler, Hanie made his first-career NFL start in arguably one of the most hostile NFL environments — Oakland. The young quarterback will likely have better success this weekend at Soldier Field against the struggling Chiefs.

“Caleb has got to be better this Sunday against the Chiefs,” Biggs said. “People think that’s going to happen. (They think) he’s not going to be anxious or nervous. He’s going to be playing at home — there are a handful of factors that should make it better the second time out.”